


A Good Life

by cuddliestcactus



Series: A Good Life [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Get Together, Pregnancy, Slight Unrequited Love, Unplanned Pregnancy, mostly happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 09:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1935906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddliestcactus/pseuds/cuddliestcactus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma maintains that she shouldn’t be held responsible for knocking Captain America out cold. What else was she supposed to do besides shoot the Night-Night gun at the two strange men that come crashing into her lab?</p><p>She also maintains that she could not have known that the plant sample she threw at the Winter Soldier was in fact a powerful sedative.</p><p>She will, however, admit that she had suspected it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Life

**Author's Note:**

> So I somehow stumbled upon Jemma/Bucky and then got this scene of pregnant!Jemma and Bucky cuddling stuck in my head. This is the result.
> 
> Also, it's unbeta'd so if you spot any mistakes, please let me know!
> 
> ATTENTION: I was perusing amusewithaview's awesome series 'Nothing but love in view' (seriously, go check it out because it is awesome) and realized that we both used the "auspicious beginnings" line. I definitely did not do that intentionally, just a weird coincidence, but I didn't want anyone to think some plagiarizing was going on here. That shit isn't cool.

The cold felt nice; a cool trail up and down her swollen belly. A series of nudges from within her followed the path left by his metallic fingers.

“It’s fitting, isn't it?”

Her whisper didn’t break James’ concentration on her midsection. Ever since she had begun to show, it had been hard to get him to focus on anything other than her pregnant stomach.

So it wasn’t a surprise that her question only got a quizzical ‘hmm’ from him as one hand traced patterns on her skin. His other hand, the flesh and blood one, was slung securely around her back, curling her upper body into him. Well, as much as their little bump would allow her to curl. She wiggled her legs from where they laid across his to accommodate her stomach as she leaned back to look him in the eyes.

Feeling her gaze, he finally looked up from ministrations.

“It’s fitting, I said,” he still looked a little confused so she elaborated, “I mean, that the baby likes the cold seeing as her father is the Winter Soldier.”

 

\---------------------------------------

 

Theirs was not an auspicious beginning.

After the fall of SHIELD and its subsequent miraculous resurrection, there was some confusion as to who should be in the know.

Newly minted Director Phil Coulson had his Bus team, obviously, but the question remained as to whether the agency would be better off in the dark or in the light. Director Coulson had erred on the side of caution and kept their operations covert.

A year later, when Captain America and his recently recovered, yet still unstable BFF came crashing through the window of the remote lab facility where Jemma Simmons was studying suspicious, possibly alien plant life, she thought the secrecy may have been a mistake.

Jemma maintains that she shouldn’t be held responsible for knocking Captain America out cold. What else was she supposed to do besides shoot the Night-Night gun at the two strange men that came crashing into her lab?

She also maintains that she could not have known that the plant sample she threw at the Winter Soldier was in fact a powerful sedative.

She will, however, admit that she had suspected it.

What is undisputed is that two super-soldiers woke up with limbs bound tightly together using a metal alloy strong enough to keep both of them from breaking free and a very pretty, very apologetic biochemist offering them tea while they waited for Director Coulson.

\---------------------------------------

James laughed at her observation. He liked that here, in the quiet of their home with just their little family, just the three of them, they could talk about anything. They could…not make light of his demons, but could instead acknowledge them for what they were: the past.

“Dunno about that, doll. Never much liked the cold.” His fingers moving over the spot where their little girl was growing safe and strong caught his eye once again.

“As the one who shares your bed and has to deal with your theft of the duvet every night, your dislike of the cold is something with which I am intimately acquainted.”

He loved the way she talked. She never just said anything. Never spoke simply. Everything was elaborate; everything detailed.

He loved her details.

“I could sleep on the couch tonight. Give you the chance to keep the covers for yourself.” She buried her head more deeply into the crook of his neck at his offer and pulled herself more tightly into him with grasping hands.

He smiled into her hair.

And he could never forget, he loved how she loved him

\---------------------------------------

After the hours of debriefing (there was quite a bit to cover, from a not deceased Coulson to a not dismantled SHIELD), Jemma didn’t cross paths with either Steve Rogers or James ‘Bucky’ Barnes for months.

Admittedly, that had more to with the fact that she stayed at the remote lab for longer than she really needed to stay. Coulson had tried to bring her back to headquarters, citing the attack as proof she shouldn’t be alone this far from back up.

This, predictably, led Jemma straight to also citing the attack, but with more emphasis on how she had single-handedly dealt with one from two of the most dangerous men in the world. That, she said, was proof she was fine just where she was, thank you very much.

There wasn’t much Coulson could say to that, short of ordering her to return, and he wouldn’t do that to her. Not yet.

It was no secret why she was hiding out in the wilderness. Fitz had healed physically and mentally from his injuries, but he hadn’t remembered his emotional confession to Jemma. She hadn’t wanted to discuss it while he was recovering, hadn’t wanted the tension that would arise from the discussion to jeopardize her role in helping with his recovery.

He was her best friend, after all, and she loved him. Even if it wasn’t the same way as he loved her.

Once he’d shown himself to be back at 100%, she felt she owed it to him and to their friendship to clear the air. She told him of the last moments in that container at the bottom of the ocean, of what he’d revealed to her. She’d also tearfully told him how much she loved him and cared for him, but just not in the way of a lover.

It’d been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, to break her best friend’s heart, even in the wake of all the terrible things she’d bore witness to in the year before. Fitz had been wonderful and understanding and sweet, which had made it worse somehow.

So she fled. She told herself she was doing it for him, that she was giving him space to process.

It wasn’t until he showed up at the door of her lab in the middle of nowhere and simply told her “It’s alright, Jemma. Come home now,” that she realized she had been running to punish herself for not loving him like he loved her.

And he had come to absolve her.

\---------------------------------------

She felt the stirrings of hunger only seconds before her stomach decided to loudly announce them to the room with a ferocious growl. Jemma knew this insatiable appetite was part and parcel of being pregnant but that didn’t mean she didn’t feel self-conscious when her gut got vocal about it.

Even if it was just James and her.

James, for his part, couldn’t keep the smile from his voice. “Did Fitz not feed you today in the lab?”

She knew he was only trying to get a rise out of her, but she still couldn’t help the scowl that marred her features. “I’ll have you know, Sergeant Barnes, that I am fully capable of feeding myself. And if perhaps Fitz has taken to leaving snacks around the lab as of late, I’m sure it has nothing to do with me!”

That earned a snort from James.

“Yeah, Jemma, I’m sure Fitz started getting peckish right around when you started experiencing pregnancy cravings. Total coincidence,” he leaned in to give her a quick kiss, “Come on, doll, let’s get you some dinner.”

With that, he gently moved her from his lap and made his way to the kitchen. She could hear him muttering to himself about needing to go to the grocery store for the third time this week, and she tried to tell herself that was only because of his super-metabolism and not her pregnant eating habits.

She had never been a very good liar.

\--------------------------------------

It hadn’t been awkward. She supposes that it was unfair of her to have expected awkwardness when it came to Fitz and herself, but they were fine.

Oh, it wasn’t the same. Not exactly. She couldn’t help thinking that was a good thing, though. If she couldn’t be what Fitz deserved, then their relationship needed to evolve. They couldn’t be the people they were before, be that inseparable duo after acknowledging that they were never going to be the be-all-end-all for each other. And that was okay because they could still be each other’s support and best friend; they just needed to grow into their own on their own, as well.

That happened, eventually, of course. She hadn’t expected Skye and Fitz to get together, but it worked. Skye made sure Fitz stepped out of his comfort zone and Fitz gave Skye someone solid and constant to count on for the first time in her life. The funny part about all of it, to Jemma, was that it appeared that neither of them had expected to end up together, either.

When Jemma walked in on them in a clichéd, heated embrace in the labs, they had looked more shocked by the situation at hand than Jemma herself. She liked to remember their faces in that moment whenever she needed a good laugh.

Weeks after that incident, she and Fitz had been sent by Coulson to consult on a project being led by Dr. Jane Foster at Stark Tower. On the ride over, Fitz and Jemma speculated whether they would get to meet the illustrious Iron Man himself or even Dr. Banner. Fitz was hoping for Tony so that he could compare machinery, whereas Jemma had a question about some radiation from her alien plants with which she was sure Dr. Banner could help.

As it turned out, both men were waiting for them when they reached Dr. Foster’s lab. They had barely gotten to exchange introductions with Dr. Foster and her assistant, Darcy Lewis, before Tony Stark had pounced on Jemma.

There was literally no other way to describe it. One second she was complimenting a preening Darcy on her alpaca sweater, the next her arm had been grabbed by Tony and she had been forced into a chair while Tony pulled another right in front of hers and leaned forward onto his knees and directly into her face.

As he began some speech about doing his regular hacking check of the SHIELD mainframe (should she inform Director Coulson of that? Surely, he would have noticed if his servers had been regularly hacked…), Jemma met the eyes of Dr. Banner. He mouthed an “I’m so sorry” at her, but she wasn’t sure what she could really do with his silent apology considering she damn near had a lapful of genius billionaire. Dr. Foster took pity on her and interrupted Tony.

“He found the video of you knocking Steve and James on their asses.” Dr. Foster nodded to herself with a little smile as if congratulating herself on her good deed of the day and turned to talk science with Fitz, who did not appear at all bothered by the harassment Jemma was enduring. Traitor.

Darcy was looking at Jemma with big eyes. “Oh my God, that was you?! Yes! Hold that thought; I’ll be right back! Don’t start without me!”

Then she ran out the door at full sprint.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand what the fuss is about?” Jemma’s voice had begun to climb in pitch. She wished she didn’t have such an obvious tell when she was anxious, but she had never been gifted at espionage.

Tony moved his head so that it was directly in her line of sight again. “You don’t understand, my beautiful new scientist lady friend? Let me explain! The ammo that video gave me against them! They’re so smug about damn near everything. ‘Oh, we fought a war. Oh, we’re so strong and good looking. Oh, we’re so goddamn noble.’” Tony was practically on top of her now because he leaned further into her with every emphatic point. Coulson had warned both she and Fitz that Stark had a thing about personal space, but she had yet to see any proof of that.

“They do not, Tony. Nothing even close to those things has ever come out of their mouths.” Dr. Banner tried to subtly pull Tony back and off of her. He was only successful because Tony had spun around to face him and indignantly cry, “They don’t need to say it! It’s all in their attitude, Brucie!”

Bruce chuckled and led Tony away from her as he chided, “Careful, Tony, your insecurities are showing.”

She meant to make her escape over to where she was supposed to be working with Dr. Foster and Fitz, but the door flew open and two large men came stumbling through it.

“Jemma, I’d like you to properly meet these two dolts when they aren’t mistaking you for a HYDRA scientist and trying to kill you,” Darcy’s voice echoed from behind the two hulking forms as they attempted to straighten out.

“Darce, you didn’t really need to shove us through,” the man on the right, who she could now see was Steve Rogers in the flesh, tossed over his shoulder at Darcy as she came into the room, “No need for us to make bigger fools out of ourselves…” The tips of his ears turned pink as he turned back to focus on Jemma.

He stepped forward with James closely following him at his left shoulder. Steve extended a hand towards Jemma and said in his most polite voice, “Dr. Simmons, it’s a pleasure to officially meet you. Sorry for that one time with the window…and for thinking it was a HYDRA facility,” The smile he shot her as she shook his hand had her wanting to salute the Stars and Stripes which was quite an odd feeling for a Brit to have.

“All is forgiven so long as you don’t blame me for your little nap.” Jemma turned and got her first good look at James Barnes outside of a textbook. He was a blank slate as he considered her hand for just a millisecond longer than was polite, but then he looked up to give her a rakish smile as he shook it.

“I’m James.”

\--------------------------------------

“How do pancakes and bacon sound?”

His question drifted back into the living room as he started pulling out the batter mix from the pantry and the bacon from the fridge. He knew her answer would be…

“Oh, yes! We still have that special syrup, don’t we? The one infused with pecans?”

He smiled to himself as he responded in the affirmitive. Jemma, for all of her brilliance and charm, couldn’t cook to save her life. He remembered actually feeling relieved at the discovery. They had been dating for a while (he had asked her out that first day in the lab at the Tower, he knew better than to let an opportunity slip through his fingers now that he had his mind in order) when Steve’s girl, Darcy, had decided they should double date with a home cooked meal. Steve and Bucky had shown up to Jemma’s apartment to find that the fire department had evacuated the building after the girls had almost burned it down on account of pork tenderloin. He still couldn’t quite understand how it had gone so wrong.

But like he said, he enjoyed being able to care for her in a way she couldn’t do for herself. So he cooked. All sorts of things. But it seemed that the baby’s very favorite things were breakfast items.

His ears picked up her soft shuffling down the hallway as he expertly flipped a pancake onto a plate. She entered the kitchen with a big yawn and a sleepy smile.

“I know intellectually that I should be tired and hungry, but I still have trouble believing I could be this tired and this hungry all at once. Scientifically speaking, it would be fascinating to me. If I wasn’t so tired and hungry.”

“Growing another human being is hard work. So eat up and we can go get in bed. Maybe watch a movie.” He slid her plate down in front of her and grabbed his own to sit next to her at the table. They ate and talked about their day.

A totally normal day.

\--------------------------------------

If you had asked Jemma about her ‘type’, she would have told you that a ‘type’ is hardly a qualifiable thing because how does someone qualify one specific set of hypothetical partners?

If you got her drunk enough, she’d tell you unassuming, smart and dark headed.

And although James was two of those three, Jemma had to admit that even at her drunkest, she never would have imagined herself with someone like him. Yes, she worked at SHIELD, but that was more a matter of circumstance. They had the best funding for research and the best things to research, so she had ended up with them. She was not the cloak and daggers sort. She had never been in a fight in her life before joining the Bus crew. She hadn’t even liked Tae Bo when she tried it as a form of exercising.

Yet here she was, two years into a relationship with perhaps the world’s most lethal assassin. James wasn’t the Winter Soldier anymore, though, not in the way that counted. He'd retained the skill set and the memories of his time as HYDRA’s weapon. And he would always wrestle with the reality that his hands had been the ones covered in blood, but there was healing to be found in the realization that it was not his choice, not his design. 

At it’s most basic, Jemma was in love with a complicated man. This didn’t trouble her because for all of his complexity, James loved her just as much.

And they worked. They complimented each other in ways she hadn’t realized she needed. They’d had their share of rough patches, perhaps a little more strange than your average couple, but they weren’t exactly your average people. They still had made it through; had made a home together and a life; were happy.

‘They were a family. A growing family.’ Jemma thought to herself as she looked down at the two little lines on the stick in her hand. ‘One big happy family.’

\--------------------------------------

James had been ecstatic. Well, terrified and ecstatic. He was a powerful figure with powerful enemies, but Jemma and James hadn’t focused on that in those early days. They’d focused on each other and the little life growing inside her.

Eventually, those fears might be realized, but until that day, they were going to be happy with the gifts life had given them.

“What are you thinkin’ about?” came a sleepy mumble from the chest she was snuggled against under their covers.

“Nothing,” she smiled into his skin, “Just our family.”

She drifted to sleep as she felt his lips press a kiss on her forehead.

It was a good life.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm iamkatebishop on Tumblr if you want to stop by and say hi! I'm nice, I swear


End file.
